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Environmental & Socio-Economic Studies Environmental & Socio-economic Studies DOI: 10.1515/environ-2016-0009 Environ. Socio.-econ. Stud., 2016, 4, 2: 26-33 © 2016 Copyright by University of Silesia ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Review article The most important message in the history of mankind Piotr Skubała Department of Ecology, University of Silesia, Bankowa Str. 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland E–mail address: [email protected] _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT It the long history of life on the Earth five major mass extinctions were observed. Nowadays, the impact of human activities on the planet has accelerated the loss of species and ecosystems to a level comparable to a sixth mass extinction, the first driven by a living species. Surprisingly, this fact rarely reaches the public consciousness. The negative influence of human activity is observed in whole area of land ecosystems, whereas marine ecosystems are at risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history. We have domesticated landscapes and ecosystems causing unforeseen changes in ecosystem attributes. Humanity has already overshot global biocapacity by 50% and now lives unsustainabily by depleting stocks of natural capital. Three the Earth-system processes - climate change, rate of biodiversity loss and interference with the nitrogen cycle - have already transgressed their boundaries. Human activities are of sufficient magnitude to suggest that we have triggered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The “Biosphere 2” project revailed that we are not able to build and control a different system life and that we are totally dependent on the present biosphere. The experiment known in the literature as “The Tragedy of the Commons” reminds us that we need frugality and cooperation to solve environmental problems and survive. KEY WORDS: extinction, land and marine ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, Earth-system processes, anthropocene, Biosphere 2, Tragedy of the Commons ARTICLE HISTORY: received 13 April 2016; accepted 7 June 2016 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Probably no one has yet conducted a survey that life (especially multicellular animal life) has relating to the following question: What is the experienced five major and many minor mass most important message in human history? extinctions (GOULD, 2004). An extinction event is Certainly we would get a whole range of responses. a widespread and rapid decrease in the amount I am convinced that very few people would think of life on Earth. Such biotic crisis is identified by a of the issue which is the subject of the following sharp change in the diversity and abundance of article. This is probably due to the fact that this multicellular organisms. It occurs when the rate subject is not on the front pages of newspapers. of extinction increases with respect to the rate of It rarely gets into the public consciousness. speciation. Students indeed meet with this topic during the The Great Oxygenation Event was probably process of education at schools or universities, the first major extinction event. However, since but quickly and effectively displace it from the Cambrian explosion five further major mass consciousness. People rarely or never discuss extinctions have significantly exceeded the about it during daily meetings. Probably few of us background extinction rate. The "Big Five" cannot thinking about it, while going to bed. be so clearly defined, but rather appear to represent the largest (or some of the largest) of a relatively 1. The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth smooth continuum of extinction events (ALROY, mass extinction 2008). The first mass extinction at the end of Ordovician The long history of the Earth was interesting (443 million years ago) probably coincides with and rich in various events. It has been established very rapid glaciation. Sea level fell by more than 26 100 metres, devastating shallow marine ecosystems. in every sense a tragedy – but, in itself, it might be Less than a million years later, there was a viewed as just one more episode of biological second wave of extinctions as ice melted, sea destruction in our planet’s history. Recovery from level rose rapidly, and oceans became oxygen- such catastrophic species loss would probably take depleted. Some 360 million years ago (late Devonian) millions of years (BARNOSKY ET AL., 2011). The Earth a messy prolonged event was observed. Again has been here before – and will be here again, many forms of life in shallow seas disapeared before its life is completely extinguished a billion very hard. The extinction was probably due to or so years into the future. Our destructive activity climate change. The greatest of all, ‘The Great is a threat to our species, not for the Earth. Dying’ of more than 95% of species (250 million Why this crucial information is not obvious or years ago, Permian-Triassic) was strongly linked well-known for all of the world's population? with massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia that Why this message does not reach humans? Paul caused, among other effects, a brief savage episode Gilding (the veteran Australian environmentalist- of global warming. The next mass extinction entrepreneur), in the book called “The Great (Triassic-Jurassic, 200 million years ago) has been Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On linked with another huge outburst of volcanism. the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World” The fifth extinction (Cretaceous-Tertiary, 65 wondered whether a few years from now we’ll million years ago) killed off the dinosaurs and look back at the first decade of the 21st century - much else. Probably an asteroid impact on Mexico when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, did the damage (ALROY, 2008; BARNOSKY ET AL., 2011). world population surged, tornados plowed through And now currently ongoing we observed cities, floods and droughts set records, populations Holocene extinction. Humans have increased the were displaced and governments were threatened species extinction rate by as much as 1,000 times by the confluence of it all - and ask ourselves: over background rates typical over the planet’s What were we thinking? How did we not panic history (MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT, 2005). when the evidence was so obvious that we’d We are witnessing the start of a mass extinction crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/ of species that will, if allowed to run its course, population redlines all at once? (GILDING, 2011). leave a deeply depaurized biosphere for at least For the author the only answer is denial. He argued: five million years – a period twenty times longer “When you are surrounded by something so big than humans have been humans (MYERS, 2005). that requires you to change everything about the This specific crisis in the history of the biosphere way you think and see the world, then denial is the has some very special features. Indeed, there has natural response. But the longer we wait, the been nothing remotely like it in our planet’s bigger the response required” (GILDING, 2011). history. None of previous causes of mass extinctions has really figured in the current biological crisis. 2. Lands under the direct influence of man Not even climate change, which is still only in its early stages. Instead, the extinction is being driven Our biosphere is sick. We have a planet that by the actions of one species, Homo sapiens. Such behaves like an infected organism. Each element a mass extinction has not occurred before. Some of the biosphere is being destroyed and it's scientists estimate that this extinction would getting faster. Over the last few decades there has grow to rival the last great catastrophe of the past, been no published scientific article that would deny when the dinosaurs and much else died out 65 this assertion. Let's look at our planet and the state million years ago, in as little as three human of its ecosystems according to the recent scientific lifetimes (ZALASIEWICZ, 2015). Others underlined that reports. At first let's consider the environmental there was only one possible exception. It occurred conditions at terrestrial ecosystems. some 2.5 billions years ago, when a type of microbe KAREIVA ET AL. (2007) noted that as many as evolved photosynthesis to spew out oxygen. A gas 83% of terrestrial ecosystems is under the direct that would have been highly toxic to the other influence of human activities. Few locations in the microbes living then, and these would have been world remain without human influence. These pushed to the fringes of life on Earth – where areas are indicated by one of the following: they still remain. human population density greater than one What is really specific in current extinction is person/km2; agricultural land use; towns or cities; that the species which is the cause of the event is access within 15 km of a road, river, or coastline; land-living, but has managed to become the top or nighttime light detectable by satellite. However, predator in the oceans too and has caused there really is no such thing as nature untainted irreversible damage to all earth’s ecosystems. It is by people. The impact of industry and agriculture 27 is global, climate change is affecting the entire human history (ROGERS & LAFFOLEY, 2011). planet (Kareiva et al.,
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